Russia Crash

Video clip shows an automobile accident on a Russian highway?

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Claim: Video clip shows an automobile accident on a Russian highway.

TRUE

Example:[Collected via e-mail, March 2012]

THIS A VIDEO TAKEN BY A STATE TROOPER DASH CAM. SEE HOW QUICKLY YOUR LIFE COULD CHANGE BY TAKING YOUR EYES OFF THE ROAD FOR A SPLIT SECOND. THINK ABOUT THIS NEXT TIME YOU SEE SOMEONE TEXTING OR READING A BOOK OR PUTTING ON THEIR MAKEUP, WHILE DRIVING.PLEASE SEND THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW. THIS IS REALITY…

Origins: According to an article in the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda (as best we can make out through translation software), the accident shown in the video clip linked above took place on

24 February 2012 on the M-7 Highway in Russia. As described by the news account, a 32-year-old Moscow resident named Alexander (no last name given) lost control of his Nissan Navara, collided with another vehicle, and then drifted into an oncoming traffic lane where he was hit head-on by a Freightliner big rig. The driver of the Nissan was killed, and the driver of the big rig suffered moderate injuries.

The particular stretch of road where this collision took place has apparently been site of several deadly accidents in recent years, including a 2009 bus crash that killed 12 passengers and a 2007 automobile accident that took the life of Russian actor Aleksandr Dedjushko, his wife, and his son.

No available information documents the suggestions that the car that taped the accident was a police vehicle, or that the driver of the Nissan was texting or reading at the time he lost control of his car.